ELL students’ enjoyable ERASMUS experience

Aiming to provide students with an educational experience that goes beyond the classroom and the field, every semester International Burch University encourages students to participate in Erasmus + exchange programs. Students at the Department of English language and literature have eagerly been part of this for several generations now, and this year, four of them decided to embark on this journey in Romania and Poland.

Aiming to provide students with an educational experience that goes beyond the classroom and the field, every semester International Burch University encourages students to participate in Erasmus + exchange programs. Students at the Department of English language and literature have eagerly been part of this for several generations now, and this year, four of them decided to embark on this journey in Romania and Poland.

Kenan Ćatić, a junior, and Fahrudin Bošnjaković, a sophomore student, are currently in Poland, Pila. In our recent conversation, telling us how satisfied and excited they are to be there, they said that they were pleasantly surprised by the welcoming and warm atmosphere of the university’s students and staff. Exploring the society of Poland, Fahrudin made an interesting linguistic remark: “I quickly noticed how intrinsically polite the Polish language is, with the people often referring to each other in the third person, something I very rarely chanced to see in Bosnia. Although the language barrier is still present, the language itself is similar to the Chakavian dialect, so it was less of a challenge communicating basic terms.”

A bit closer to our border, in Romania, our sophomore David Jeremić and our junior student Rümeysa Turkut are having a true out-of-their-comfort-zone experience as Rümeysa says she is still not sure how she got involved in this experience but she has realized that, “rather than exploring only the place, culture, and country, I am exploring myself here.”

As a Turkish student in Bosnia, she has already learned what living in a foreign country feels like, but she claims that this Erasmus experience is far beyond that. “I think this experience is kind of a bridge between cultures and countries. I really appreciate the fact that I have met a lot of new friends here.” Our junior added that an experience like that one provides a perfect learning curve for young people willing to expand their worldviews.

We wish our students a nice stay and much success in the exams and are looking forward to their return.